A painfully dull stretch of interstate, I-81 takes nearly four
hours for Pilat's Roanoke team bus to navigate within the state of
Virginia alone. And with three consecutive weekend trips to Eastern
Pennsylvania already under his belt - to Franklin & Marshall,
Dickinson and Cabrini - the monotony of viewing rural Virginia from
the highway is getting on his nerves.

Who is making Roanoke's travel plans, anyway?

"That's just bad scheduling by the head coach," laughed Pilat, in
his 21st season as the skipper of the Maroons.

As annoying as the stretch of road has become, it has provided
Roanoke, 9-0 and ranked No. 3 in the latest USILA weekly poll, with
much of this year's schedule strength so far.

While the offense has been prolific - the Maroons opened the season
by posting five consecutive games of at least 20 goals - the
schedule has not been as stiff as in years past. A 21-10 road
victory over F&M and a 20-12 neutral site win over Kenyon stood
out in the run. But the Maroons' latest victory, a 16-13 triumph
over then-No. 8 Cabrini, gave Pilat's team its first signature win
and confirmed the team's high ranking.

"We stayed on an even keel, but we knew it was a big game because
they were ranked ahead of us in every poll that was out there to
start the year," said Pilat of Cabrini. "So we knew they had high
expectations for their team - and they are a good team that we're
not done hearing from this year. I would say that we thought
F&M was big, Dickinson was big, and Kenyon was big for us
because they beat us last year. We've had a bunch of games that we
felt were pretty big and if we can continue that mindset, we'll be
okay."

Dickinson, who the Maroons played on March 14, may have been the
key game in keeping Roanoke primed for its encounter with Cabrini.
Out-shot by the Red Devils, 52-43, Pilat's squad found itself
trailing, 13-11, with four minutes left in the third quarter. A
strong defensive effort - the Maroons kept Dickinson off the board
for the remainder of the game - and some clutch goals allowed
‘Noke to leave Carlisle with a 14-13 win.

"I think was really good for us. I told our coaches after that game
that this was the best thing that could have happened to us other
than a loss," said Pilat. "Sometimes you need a loss for guys to
snap into gear. That game was pretty darn close and could have been
a loss, so I think it woke some guys up a little bit and let them
know that we need to continue to work hard and that there are a lot
of good teams out there. And not just teams that are ranked, but a
lot of top opponents you have to watch out for, so I think that
gave us that mindset."

What has given Roanoke its offensive mindset - the Maroons are
scoring 20.8 goals per outing - is a depth that was sorely missing
on last year's team that finished with an 8-6 record and missed the
ODAC tournament for the first time.

The offense is clicking so well right now that one of Roanoke's
defensive middies, Justin Tuma, has 16 points this spring.

"We definitely have a lot of great depth," said Pilat. "I'm playing
six attackmen every game and we play six to nine offensive middies,
so I'm really pleased. I like seeing those guys step up and every
attackmen had a point and every midfielder on the first line had a
point [against Cabrini]. We're happy with the weapons we have and
it's got us off to a fast start."

The Maroons have one more non-conference tilt against Williams, the
defending NESCAC champion, on Wednesday, but then it's onto the
ODAC slate. As great a start as it has been, if Roanoke flames out
in the conference again and doesn't make the league tourney, it is
unlikely the hot start will save them an at-large bid.

"Out of conference games are fun and we like to challenge ourselves
with good competition, but nowadays with the conference AQs the
conference games mean a lot, so everybody ramps it up a little
bit," said Pilat. "We're used to being in the ODAC championship
games and last year we weren't, so we really want to get back
there. Each conference game is a big game for us and I think we'll
be ready to go."

And what if Roanoke does take care of business in the ODAC?

Pilat might have to look at I-81 again - from 30,000 feet above on
his flight to Foxboro.